A global consensus now recognises biodiversity as equal to climate change in its importance to sustainable development. While multilateral development banks (MDBs) have developed a strong emphasis on climate change, how do they approach biodiversity as a new priority? Current literature on MDBs' approach to climate change is prolific, but scholarship on biodiversity is scarce. Here, we compare MDBs' climate and biodiversity efforts in order to identify differences, analyze causes, and ultimately propose ways for MDBs to prioritise biodiversity. Methodologically, we analyze MDB documents in the form of policies, high‐level announcements, and strategies, in order to compare climate change and biodiversity across five aspects: Financing, policy, strategy, client requirements, and environmental reporting. Subsequently, we apply automated text analysis to examine mentions of climate change and biodiversity in annual reports. Focusing on the 10 largest MDBs, we find that across all five aspects, MDBs' prioritisation of biodiversity lags far behind that of climate change. From that, we recommend that biodiversity be prioritised by MDBs in three ways: By adopting an integrated strategic approach to environmental issues that goes beyond climate, by not only addressing biodiversity through safeguards but also through labeled projects, and by assigning targets as proportions of total financing.

中文翻译：

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赶上气候优先事项：了解多边开发银行不断变化的生物多样性方法


现在，全球共识认识到生物多样性对于可持续发展的重要性与气候变化同等。尽管多边开发银行（MDB）非常重视气候变化，但它们如何将生物多样性作为新的优先事项？目前有关多边开发银行应对气候变化方法的文献很多，但有关生物多样性的学术却很少。在这里，我们比较多边开发银行在气候和生物多样性方面的努力，以找出差异、分析原因，并最终提出多边开发银行优先考虑生物多样性的方法。在方法上，我们以政策、高层公告和战略的形式分析MDB文件，以便从融资、政策、战略、客户要求和环境报告五个方面比较气候变化和生物多样性。随后，我们应用自动文本分析来检查年度报告中提及的气候变化和生物多样性。关注10个最大的多边开发银行，我们发现，在所有五个方面，多边开发银行对生物多样性的优先重视远远落后于气候变化。由此，我们建议多边开发银行通过三种方式优先考虑生物多样性：对超越气候的环境问题采取综合战略方法，不仅通过保障措施而且通过标记项目来解决生物多样性问题，以及按照占总体的比例来分配目标融资。